“About the first of August a large force of the enemy made a serious demonstration on Richmond by way of Deep Bottom. We were on the extreme left, just above Malvern Hill. The fighting was pretty lively and Major Robinson [sic, Robertson] ran away with six companies of the regiment [24th VA CAV] (Col. was absent sick). I stayed with four companies and had the credit of saving one of our batteries from capture, whether deservedly or not. My opinion is the credit was accidental, but accidents sometimes happened in the army.

”For his performances the Major was compelled to resign or stand a court martial. He resigned.”1

You may want to correct your source reporting. The author was THEOPHILUS Gilliam Barham. Some rosters of Lee’s colonels misappropriate “Theodore” from the occasional abbreviation “Theo.” I know because T.G. Barham was my 2nd gr-grandfather. The typescript copies of the War Record are photocopies of the original one prepared by my grandfather at my grandmother’s request. Cousins in the Oakley & Mason families of the Petersburg/Prince George area still hold the original longhand manuscript. They descend from Barham’s daughter Hannah Barham Mason, while I descend from George P. Barham, his son.

I’m currently at work preparing an illustrated/footnoted edition.

Thanks.

David Fletcher
Richmond, VA

PS. It may be that we have ID’d a photo of T.G. Barham, a double portrait of him with his son George P. Barham, most likely dated the year of his death, 1885, at age 52.

According to Holland’s regimental history, T.G. Barham was in Co. I of the 24th VA / Gary’s Brigade. My grandfather, W. W. McCloy, was in Co. B. (Capt. W. Magruder’s) company. If you have any info on the regiment & its actions, perhaps we could exchange? Thanks,

I sent you an email last year on Gary’s Cavalry Brigade and you sent me some good items then. I’ll definitely keep you in mind any time I find anything related to the 24th Virginia or any of the units in the brigade. One way for you to follow along here is to go to the unit pages for the 24th Virginia:24th Virginia

The then Captain Barham raised–along with Captain Hamlin Norfleet– what eventually became companies I & K between August 1862 and February 1863, which prior to their incorporation into the “new” 24th VA Cavalry in the Summer of 1864, were his–Barham’s–own detached battalion. In between, they’d been folded into Dearing’s 8th Cavalry. It can get confusing.

I just came back from the Gary family reunion down in Edgefield, SC, where Brig. Gen’l. Martin W. Gary made his post-War home, at Oakley Park. It was quite a time. I was a family guest, given T. G. Barham’s close ties to M. W. Gary (Gary wrote a persuasive 3-page letter of recommendation for Barham’s elevation to Lt. Colonel). Gary’s Brigade was headquartered at the Frazier Farm (not THE “Frazier’s Farm” at Glendale!) which lay near what’s now Laburnam Avenue, and south of the York River R.R., which is roughly bordered by I-64 in the modern era. They were assigned territory from Nine Mile Road all the way to New Market Road, ranging eastward out to the 3rd defensive ring, remnants of which can be seen along Airport Drive near the Richmond airport.

Jane–feel free to email me at: eastsutton@yahoo.com. I descend from T. G. Barham’s son George Prince Barham. I’ll be happy to share whatever you’d like to know about Theophilus Gilliam Barham; he was very much with me in some way while I was down with the Gary’s last weekend!